Thompson having positive effect on Senators' penalty kill

Is it OK, Nate Thompson was asked, to talk about the Senators’ perfect penalty-killing numbers on the morning of a game?

“Maybe not,” the veteran centre said with a laugh, at least pretending to be superstitious.

Throwing caution to the wind moments earlier, the team’s PK “expert” gave his opinion as to why Ottawa had survived 15-of-15 shorthanded situations through the first five games, giving it a No. 1-ranked efficiency rating.

“I think we’re doing all the little things well,” said Thompson. “Blocking shots, sticks in lanes, winning face-offs at key moments, having your goalie come up with big saves. I think that’s the biggest thing, too, when your goalie is making big saves at key times in the game.

“You want your penalty kill to be good, but your goalie has to be your best penalty killer. That’s been the case for us.” Not taking anything away from either Craig Anderson or Mike Condon, coach Guy Boucher credited two other individuals when asked why the Senators penalty killing had risen from the 22nd ranked, 79.9% success rated it finished with last season: Thompson and associate coach Marc Crawford.

“You’ve got to remember we were top 10 before the last month and a quarter (in 2016-17),” said Boucher. “We were doing terrific, then all of a sudden we started to have problems and we couldn’t stop the slide. This summer, Crow worked extremely hard on trying to keep up with the best PKs, and why we struggled at the end. We became a little more passive all of a sudden, and our personnel, it seemed a little overwhelmed by the end. That’s the biggest reason why we went and got Thompson.

“Thompson is our best penalty-kill player. It’s made a gigantic different. Not just because he’s on the ice, but also because he’s able to transmit his knowledge and his experience to the other guys that were here.”

“He’s going to become a high-end expert penalty-kill guy, but just like 5-on-5, and just like power play, when you’ve got guys that are experts at something they become models,” Boucher added. “And models have a lot more impact than coaches do, when you’ve got those guys around. That’s what Thompson is. We’re able to double shift him on the penalty kill, which means we don’t have to double shift guys like (Zack) Smith, who can play on the power play and can play 5-on-5 on our top two lines, and can have more energy to do so.”

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